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United States Patent | 5,712,427 |
Matthews | January 27, 1998 |
A vibratory rotation sensor that utilizes non-capacitive mechanical displacement detectors (24) to detect the flexural standing wave pattern in a hemispherical resonator (14). In a preferred embodiment, a plurality of tunneling transducers (24) are positioned around the hemispherical resonator (14) to detect the standing wave. A "force-to-rebalance" mechanization mode is preferably used for calculating the sensor's rate of rotation, with a transducer (24) placement that allows for constant calibration of the sensor's scale factor. In addition, a pickoff transducer orientation is provided that allows for simultaneous calculation of the sensor's rotation angle and any linear acceleration that is exerted on the sensor's hemispherical resonator (14), thereby allowing the sensor to be simultaneously used as a rotation sensor and an accelerometer.
Inventors: | Matthews; Anthony (Santa Barbara, CA) |
Assignee: | Litton Systems Inc. (Woodland Hills, CA) |
Appl. No.: | 822049 |
Filed: | March 24, 1997 |
Current U.S. Class: | 73/504.04; 73/1.37; 73/504.13 |
Intern'l Class: | G01P 009/04 |
Field of Search: | 73/504.04,504.13,504.12,504.14,504.15,504.16,1.37,1.38,1.75,1.77,1.78 |
4951508 | Aug., 1990 | Loper, Jr. et al. | 73/505. |
5218867 | Jun., 1993 | Varnham et al. | 73/514. |
5285686 | Feb., 1994 | Peters | 73/504. |
T.W. Kenny et al., "Micromachined Tunneling Accelerometer", NASA Tech. Brief, vol. 17, No. 11, Item #61, Nov. 1993, pp. i, 1-4, 1a-3a. T.W. Kenny et al., "Techniques for Mass Production of Tunneling Electrodes", NASA Tech. Brief, vol. 17, No. 11, Item #1, Nov. 1993, pp. i -i i, 1-3. S.E. McBride et al., "Scanning-Tunneling-Microscope Detection of Surface Acoustic Waves", Proceedings of the 1992 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, (1992), pp.445-448. |